GENOCIDE- MARVEL

• NINE •

2018

It's going to be ok. It's going to be ok, Wanda we can do this. We'll get out of this, I promise. I will protect you.

The broken promise echoed around in Cassandra's head, and each time she heard it, the same memory would flash through her mind. Wanda breaking Vision apart with her powers, and the blast of gold mist from the Mind stone. Wanda being tossed over the bushes before landing still. And something she hadn't remembered seeing:

Wanda looking relieved as she faded to dust.

Then the blood and short impressed look from Thanos. Then the silence. Everyone was gone. James, Sam, T'Challa, Wanda. And Vision, with the colored drained from his body, and a hole where the stone used to be. Then the whispers.

How could you? You promised. This is all your fault. Liar. Your fault. You don't deserve to be here. Your fault. Your fault. Your faul-

Cassandra sat up. Every single night, she would have this nightmare. Every night she got the whispers. Your fault, your fault, your fault. And everytime she would end up crying. Usually she would open up the window, cry, and stare at the sky outside until she could go back to sleep. And that's exactly what she did. Except this time, Natasha was sleeping next to her.

Natasha thought, well it was more of an agreed upon idea, that if they both had nightmares, they could just sleep with the other person, and help them with the nightmares. They wouldn't have to be alone. And it worked as long as the person having the nightmare actually woke up. It was much more dangerous to wake up an assassin then have them wake up themselves.

"Cass?"

Cassandra sniffed in response. Natasha opened her eyes, sitting up and hugging her knees to her chest. Cassandra looked at Natasha, a few tears already having fallen down her face. Natasha held her arms out, making grabbing motions with her fingers.

"Come here," Cassandra crawled over to her, and accepted Natasha's hug. "It's ok," Natasha said, stroking Cassandra's hair. "It's ok."
"Nat?"
"Yes Cass?"
"Was it my fault?" Cassandra sobbed, barely understandable.
"No Cass, no my love. It was not your fault."
"But I promised, I promised I would keep them safe and I lied. I lied, I broke my promise. She's- she's dead because of me," sobbed Cassandra.
"No, no Cass, she isn't dead because of you. It wasn't you. It was the purple сука. You and Wanda held your own, you tried as hard as you could. We all did."
"But I promised."

Natasha held Cassandra's face in her hands, making Cassandra look at her.

"I know you did Cass, but we can't keep all of our promises. No matter how hard we try. Мы далеки от совершенства, мой милый, нам пора перестать пытаться быть такими."

Cassandra tucked her head into Natasha's shoulder, shaking with tears. Every night, Natasha put up with her tears and anger, and always told her the same things. We are far from perfect my darling, it's time we stop trying to be. Everyday she tried to remind herself that it wasn't her fault. But every single day of her life since she was seven years old, was her fault. And Wanda was her responsibility, she vouched for Wanda, protected Wanda, when the US tried to send her to prison after Sokovia. And Wanda was her friend, a daughter she never had, she was just a kid.

The more she thought about it, the more she cried. And the more she cried, the tighter Natasha held her. Then Cassandra began to feel something. She felt it when Natasha was holding her hand, telling her it would be ok, when Natasha was hugging her tight, when they would wake up asleep in each other's arms, when Natasha would smile at her, when Natasha would hold her face in her hands and tell her that she was proud of her.

But what was the feeling? She had an idea, but she still wasn't sure. The thought was swimming around her brain as she drifted off to sleep, salty tears drying on her face.

••••••••••••••••••

Cassandra walked slowly into the kitchen, hood over her head, covering her stained red cheeks and bloodshot eyes. Bruce was sitting at the counter, staring out the window with a mug of coffee in his hand. He heard her walk in, and turned his head to look at her.

"Good morning Cassandra."
"Good morning Bruce," she said quietly.

She pulled a mug from the cabinet above her, pouring coffee from the pot on the counter.

"Did you sleep ok?" Bruce asked. She shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee.
"Nightmares again, did you sleep alright?"

Bruce nodded, but she could see behind his eyes that he'd been having nightmares too. She knew they all were. Everyone's were about different things, her's about the guilt of breaking her promise to Wanda, Steve's were probably something about James. Natasha's were all of her trauma packed together, Thor's had something to do with Loki probably, Bruce's had something to do with the green rage monster in the purple shorts. Rhodey hadn't been sleeping, and the only other survivor in the Compound was a talking raccoon.

She didn't feel hungry, even though she knew Natasha would get on her about it. Instead of eating she wandered around the Compound. The closer she wandered to the bottom floor, the more she heard Rhodey, hitting metal with a hammer, and the occasional curse word.

Cassandra walked into one of the lower floor briefing rooms, staring at the holotable with the model of the Earth on it. Continents were colored red as numbers popped up above them, moving so fast she couldn't focus on one number for more than half a second. A small continuous beep brought her to a glass containment box. Inside was a pager with a symbol. A gold star, with red and blue lines behind it. Cassandra stared at it, digging through her memory for the symbol. Before she could remember what it was, the pager turned off.

"What?" Cassandra said, tapping on the glass. She looked behind the containment chamber, checking to see that it was still plugged in other the wall.

Cassandra turned around to go tell somebody, and jumped when she was met with the face of a blonde woman. Cassandra pulled a pencil off the table behind her and shifted her feet into a battle stance.

"Where's Fury?"

i like this chapter, um yeah. that's kinda all i have for today, don't forget to vote, comment, all that jazz.
ily more than nat loves changing her hairstyle, have a fantastic rest of your day❤